The first meeting between the two heavy-handed mixed martial
artists, which took place on EliteXC’s May 31 debut on CBS, had
ended as a no contest after Lawler accidentally poked Smith in the
eye. EliteXC and CBS brought the pair together again for another
entertaining, somewhat abbreviated battle.

This time, however, the ending was decisive.

The fight started slow but picked up midway through the first.
After backpedaling for the first minute, Lawler backed Smith
against the cage, measured him with a jab and landed a straight
left. Two good kicks to the body followed and visibly hurt Smith.
Yet Smith, 29, fighting of Elk Grove, Calif., rallied late with a
right hand down the pipe that caused Lawler to retreat. Smith
pursued with more punches and won the round.

“In the first round, he was pretty much dictating the pace,” said
Lawler, now 18-4 with one no contest. “I was taking my time, but
man, he was coming after me.”

The second stanza also started well for Smith. He sliced Lawler
open early with a series of forearm smashes on the inside. As blood
began to leak out of Lawler, though, the cut fighter launched a
pair of left hooks that tore through Smith’s defense. Lawler then
trapped Smith against the fence and went to work.

“The thing is, I got cut and I knew that I had to step it up and
not give the ref anytime to stop it,” said the 26-year-old Lawler.
“So I just kept the pace up and kept pushing forward.”

The middleweight champion
hammered away on Smith’s body with punches, though his knees did
the greatest damage and dropped Smith to the mat. Smith rose, but
Lawler stayed on him and kept smashing home knees and kicks until
referee Herb Dean(Pictures) stopped the fight 2:35 into round
two.

“I made a mistake,” said Smith, who fell to 13-5 with one no
contest. “I knew I cut him with an elbow. Like an idiot, I sat
around and waited for the ref to maybe look at it. And he went to
work on me, went to work on my midsection with those knees. You
live and you learn.”

Nick
Diaz(Pictures) (18-7, 1 NC) received a wild
welcome from his hometown crowd in Stockton, Calif. He also
received a fight from Thomas Denny(Pictures) (26-17), at least for five-plus
entertaining minutes.

Denny, 37, of Victorville, Calif., came out throwing combinations
and inside leg kicks in the first round. Diaz, 24, stayed patient,
even after missing two submission attempts -- a kimura and an
armbar. Denny escaped the subs and won the exchange that followed
with some solid knees.

Midway through the round,
however, Diaz began putting a jab in Denny’s face and following up
with a straight left. As Diaz picked up the pace, Denny got hit,
got tired and got sloppy. A big left with a minute to go in the
round caused Denny to stumble back and take a seat, though “The
Wildman” got up for another trade, which Diaz won with an elbow on
the inside and more left hands.

The end came quickly in the second. Denny’s best moments were
behind him, and Diaz approached his peak behind a jab that backed
his opponent against the cage. A left hook followed that hurt
Denny, who dropped under Diaz’s onslaught and was stopped on the
ground 30 seconds into the round.

Jake
Shields(Pictures) (21-4-1) made beating quality
welterweight Nick
Thompson(Pictures) (36-10-1) look easy. Fighting out
of San Francisco, the 29-year-old Shields dove in for a single-leg
takedown to start the fight. Almost instantly he moved to the
mount.

Thompson, 27, of Minneapolis, nearly rolled Shields. But nearly
wasn’t enough, and Shields slipped on a guillotine choke from the
mount. The Cesar
Gracie(Pictures)-trained fighter posted with his
left arm and cranked with his right to force the submission at
1:03.

“All the waiting just made me stronger,” said Shields, who finally
became the EliteXC welterweight champion with the win and made
clear his desire to fight the UFC’s best at his weight. “I would
love to fight the winner of [UFC champion Georges
St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch(Pictures)] and unify the world titles.”

Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, 23, stopped Shayna
Baszler(Pictures)’s early submission attempts and
finished her late in the second round. The Brazilian, who improved
to 5-0, showed strong takedown defense that enabled her
hard-punching stand-up game.

In the first round, though, Santos lost her balance and fell to her
back. Baszler, 27, of Sioux Falls, S.D., attacked with a toehold.
Santos defended while maintaining top position and scoring with
punches to take the round.

An exchange opened the second, and it was clear that Santos had
earned her reputation as a dangerous striker. She threw crisp,
straight punches that snapped back Baszler’s head. Although the two
140-pound women were fighting three-minute rounds, Baszler’s mouth
hung open for air as Santos moved in with a flurry. A right hand
sent Baszler (9-5) to the floor, and Santos commenced her
celebration by straddling the top of the cage. The only problem was
that the bout was not over.

Baszler sat stunned on the
mat while referee Steve Mazzagatti screamed at Santos, who did not
hear him until she had come down from the cage.

“You want to fight?” the referee asked Santos after she had
returned to the canvas. “Do you want to fight? Fight!”

After giving Mazzagatti a dumbfounded expression, Santos moved back
in for the kill. Baszler fought off the end momentarily, but soon
another right hand put her back on the mat and ended the fight for
good at 2:48 of the second round.